Maybe I am too tetchy, but I have serious reservations about the new Guinness television advertisement promoting their generous sponsorship for the All-Ireland hurling championship. It is, to say the very least, dodgy on a number of grounds.

This writer was unable to be present at the launch of the new advertisement but was intrigued to see a striking photograph in these pages on Wednesday last showing a hurler and a "blackedup" man stripped to the waist holding between them a McCarthy Cup with flames leaping from it. The first reaction was one of puzzlement. For a start the "blacked up" model seemed to be called Padraig Murphy - but what really intrigued was the fact that he was black. Was a team from Nigeria or Kenya to be included in this year's championship, I asked myself?

It wasn't until I read the official Guinness handout in regard to the matter that reservations really began to take shape. Now, this writer will bow to nobody insofar as admiration for Guinness products (particularly the black stuff) is concerned, yet there is a nervousness about what is contained in the press handout is concerned.

There are two issues at stake: one is that of racism, the other that of violence.

Taking the subject of violence first, please consider the following from the press handout: "The ad features a hurling `hero' who is psyching himself up in the tunnel before heading out onto the field for the match - the camera moves back to reveal another figure. This new character (the blacked-up Padraig Murphy) brings with him a sense of foreboding, of dark forces; he too carries a hurley.

"Back to the hero who takes a step further, swings his hurley up across his torso and gazes down the corridor, unflinching. The other figure mirrors these actions - exactly.

"A close-up of the second player's face reveals that he is the same person, this is the first hurler's alter ego - the demon within. The demon cracks the base (sic) of his hurley off the floor, a fracture appears and travels down the tunnel. It is white hot and molten, spitting and bubbling.

"With a fluid movement the demon takes up a scorching ball of molten material - a sliotar from hell!

"With a sudden, tremendous burst of speed, the demon hurler knocks up the ball and fires it down with awesome power and pace to the hero facing him.

"Our hero holds his ground . . . He tenses himself in anticipation and then begins to sprint up the tunnel. His hand shoots out and fields the ball with a snap of the wrist; it is quenched to become a regular sliotar.

"He looks up the tunnel. The other figure is gone, the floor healed. "He is ready. Psyched. Let the match begin."

Is it any wonder that this may cause some questions in the minds of parents who may be sending their children out to take part in hurling? Let it be clear from the start that this writer has not yet seen the advertisement involved but the public relations description of it fills me with horror. It portrays hurling as a violent, dangerous game which has a "sense of foreboding, of dark forces" and gives, in my view, a totally warped impression of hurling.

Talk of "the demon within" or a "scorching ball of molten material" and "the demon cracks the base (sic) of his hurley off the floor, a fracture appears . . . it is white hot and molten and spitting and bubbling" or later "a sliotar from hell" is a travesty of what hurling is and what it is all about.

In hurling we have a game of great skill and beauty. It is dextrous and delightful, requiring great athleticism, a co-ordination of foot and hip and thigh and wrist and eye; a celebration of manliness, the epitome of what sport is all about.

Certainly it combines, with those features already mentioned, an element of danger, a test of courage matched against courage but, above all, a test of skill against skill.

The portrayal of hurling as a violent game is a total misreading of the game and one can only suggest that the makers of the television advertisement are unfamiliar with its glories.

Of course there are occasions when players lose control but the fact is that these occasions are far less frequent than in football. Some people seem to believe that, because players actually carry a hurley with them in a match that the temptation to use it as a weapon overwhelms ordinary decency.

Consider this, however. Earlier this week there was a case in the courts where a hurler from a Dublin club was accused of fracturing an opponents jaw. The interesting thing about this was the injury was caused by a thump rather than a blow from a hurley.

In sports journalism in this town the immortal phrase used by the late John D Hickey of the Irish Independent: ". . . he threw away his hurley and used the manly fist" has gone into folklore.

On the question of the undercurrent of racism in the advertisement, it can be taken for granted that no such deliberate message was being sent out, but the suggestion of elements of The Black and White Minstrel Show is, nevertheless, unfortunate.

The suggestion that "dark forces" always exist with the psyche of hurlers is totally wrong.

It must also be accepted that the Guinness sponsorship and the company's marketing power has been an enormous benefit to hurling. So, too, has been the live televising of matches which seems to have increased, rather than diminished attendances. Nonetheless it is important that people who do not understand fully the grace and beauty of the game or have come to its qualities only recently should not be given any false impressions about it. Nobody said it was going to be easy!